Shoe plate



Dec. 22, 1936. c. B. WHITE 2,065,255

SHOE PLATE Filed Aug. 11, 1954 w ATTORN EYS Patented Dec. 22, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIE 3 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in shoe plates and it consists in the combinations, constructions and arrangements herein described and claimed.

In the ordinary commercial forms of sheet metal shoe plates considerable trouble is experienced in inserting them. In heels or soles of new leather their insertion is not particularly diflicult, but in old shoes where the leather is beaten very hard by constant tread and where the top lift is badly worn at the edge it is difficult to start the prongs of the plates because these prongs are not sharp enough to be pressed into starting position with the fingers but must be started by a blow of the hammer. On ladies spike heels especially, where small plates are used, it is difficult even to hold them with the fingers while starting them with the hammer.

Often one or two prongs will buckle, or bend, under the plate while the other prongs may spread out fiat. Often several plates are spoiled before a pair is successfully inserted. Almost invariably it is due to the fact the operator is not able to strike a fair blow with his hammer because the plate will not stay in the position in which it is first placed due to its own instability, and the worn and uneven condition of the heel.

The main reason why the prongs of sheet metal shoe plates are not ordinarily sharp enough to be pushed into starting position by the fingers is that when a transverse section of a male or female die is brought to a fine point and punchings such as shoe plates are struck with them, the die with the finely pointed section will not stand up; will in fact deteriorate extremely rapidly. The result is that the plates in ordinary use have blunt prongs and cannot be pushed into the leather by the fingers.

An object of my invention is to provide a sheet metal shoe plate which has sharpened prongs that canbe easily pushed into position by the fingers or thumb, so that subsequent blows of the hammer will drive the plate into the exact position desired.

A further object is to provide a plate having prongs that are not only sharp but that are curved on one side so as to cause the prong to bend and clinch when it is driven into the leather.

A further object is to provide a plate having prongs with a knife edge or cutting edge extending from the point of the prong toward the body portion of the plate.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification and the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing forming part of this application, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the wear face of the plate and the prongs before the latter are bent,

Figure 2 is an edge view of the plate positioned as in Figure 1 after the prongs have been bent,

Figure 3 is a sectional view through the plate 10 and the leather showing the manner in which the prongs are clinched,

Figure 4 is an enlarged face view of one end of a prong showing the beveled edges of the prong, and 15 Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4 at right angles thereto showing the curved end which terminates in a sharp point.

Usually in the punching of shoe plates from metal the punch is shaped the same as the plate and the opening in the die has a similar contour; or the dies are shaped the same as the metal lying between preceding and following plates, this allowing for the bending of the prongs downward, the punch serving as a cuttingoff punch as well; or the dies are shaped as the scrap metal to be removed, at the sides of the plate, and are arranged in pairs so as to leave the plates tied together by a narrow strip of metal which is finally removed when the plates are separated by still another punch. In all these methods either the male or female die would have its transverse section brought to a fine point wherever a sharp pointed prong is desired. However, as has been explained above, this can- 5 not be done without danger of breaking it off, or of rapid deterioration because of the lack of sufficient metal to make it hold up.

The manner of forming my shoe plate is to stamp out scrap portions of metal so that what 40 remains is a shoe plate.

The result is a plate formed as indicated in Fig. 2 having the body portion 4 and the prongs 5, each prong having a curved portion II and bevelled portions such as shown at l2. It will 45 be observed that the curved portion I l extends from one face of the prong and terminates in the other face, thus providing a sharp needle point l6.

Owing to the needle-sharp point l6 which 50 is at the end of each prong, the plate may be located in the precise position desired, and then may be pressed with the fingers so that the points will enter the leather H, see Fig. 3, and will hold the plates in position to be subsequently driven 55 in by a hammer. The curving of the edges ll of the prongs causes them to clinch when driven in by a hammer, as shown in Fig. 3, so that the plate is held securely in position.

The bevelling of the edges of the prongs tends to provide a sharp cutting edge which permits the prong to readily enter the leather under the blows of the hammer. Furthermore, the fact that the metal is curved as shown at H toward the point, insures the clinching of the prongs because the metal near the point is weak and will tend to bend over readily when the plate is driven into the leather.

I claim:

1. A shoe plate comprising a body portion and integral prongs extending at right angles thereto, each of said prongs having a needle-sharp point in the plane of one face of the prong, the opposite face of the prong being curved to intersect the point and the sides of the prongbetween the'curved face and the first named face being in a plane of one face of the prong, the opposite face of the prong having a curved cutting edge extending from the point toward the body portion, said curved cutting edge being positioned in a plane centrally disposed with respect. to the prong and being perpendicular to the.v first-mentioned face of the prong. 

